Carter pushes talks with North Korea

Former President Jimmy Carter says the Obama administration should "consider responding" to North Korea’s deadly shelling of a South Korean island and other recent incidents by engaging in direct talks with Kim Jong Il’s government.

“Pyongyang has sent a consistent message that during direct talks with the United States, it is ready to conclude an agreement to end its nuclear programs, put them all under IAEA inspection and conclude a permanent peace treaty to replace the ‘temporary’ cease-fire of 1953,” Carter wrote in The Washington Post on Wednesday. “We should consider responding to this offer.”

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If not, he suggested, “the unfortunate alternative is for North Koreans to take whatever actions they consider necessary to defend themselves from what they claim to fear most: a military attack supported by the United States, along with efforts to change the political regime.”

Direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang about denuclearization and other issues, Carter said, may be the only U.S. option short of war.

“Ultimately,” he wrote, “the choice for the United States may be between diplomatic niceties and avoiding a catastrophic confrontation.”